WG: a question concerning the book THE WAR ON FREEDOM

>  -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> Von:  Tausch, Arno  
> Gesendet:     Donnerstag, 12. September 2002 16:12
> An:   'iteam@rferl.org'
> Cc:   '0012022260691'; 'anton.pelinka@uibk.ac.at';
> 'directory@uoguelph.ca'; 'pdscottweb@hotmail.com'; '0015198378634';
> 'redaktion@studien-von-zeitfragen.de'; 'Editor@MediaMonitors.net'
> Betreff:      a question concerning the book THE WAR ON FREEDOM
> 
> dear Colleagues at SECURITY AND TERRORISM WATCH at RFE/RL
> dear Congresswoman Mrs. McKinney (Dem, State of Georgia),
> dear Professor Anton Pelinka at Innsbruck University
> dear Professor McMurtry at Guelph University in Canada
> dear Professor Peter Dale Scott at Berkeley
> dear Colleague Peter Spengler in Frankfurt
> 
> 
> in view of the endless debates on september 11 I have a question to you -
> in the name of intellectual honesty -, the editors of Radio Free Europe`s
> Security and Terrorism Watch. 
> 
> I was originally quite impressed by the provisional word text file version
> of the study herewith included, by colleague dr. Ahmed in Britain on
> September 11. My own first positive electronic comment on the first
> version of the text, sent to me by Peter Spengler in Frankfurt, a joint
> friend of the world wide known Professor Andre Gunder Frank and me - is
> now on the book cover (in good company with several other, well-known
> academic authors and the democratic representative for Georgia,
> Congresswoman Mrs. Cynthia Mc Kinney). The website article on the flight
> security aspects of September 11 is still indeed what I say on the cover
> text - powerful, disturbing, interesting, especialy the first part of it:
> 
> http://www.druckversion.studien-von-zeitfragen.net/Chapter%20V.htm
> 
> I cannot escape the impression, that in the printed final version of the
> book which I never saw before it went in print (with my name on the cover)
> - there is now really too much in terms of conspiracy theories and what
> have you, and too little in terms of serious intelligence policy research.
> 
> 
> I now have to say, that I withdraw my positive assessment, printed on the
> book cover, for all future editions. And I bear no responsibility for any
> possible court action taken by the Bush family or other persons against
> the book.
> 
> The most glaring weakness is the contradiction now present in the book in
> the treatment of the role of Mossad, the Israeli external security agency.
> In the original draft, Mossad is positively mentioned three times -
> correctly, and in conjunction with other western security agencies - as
> warning against the impending catastrophe. 
> 
> Quite correctly so, I think, and well done on the part of the author. Mr.
> Nafeez M. Ahmed has given a dramatic turn in the published version - what
> looks in the draft as a serious account of the intelligence failure of
> September 11 - by and large having come about in my own personal and
> private assessment by a US foreign policy oriented blindness vis-a-vis
> negative tendencies in Saudi Arabia and a blindness on the Talibanization
> of  the Pakistani ISI under Lt. General Hamid Gul - together with late
> reactions, chaos and what have you and a glaring failure of inland defense
> structures before September 11 - has now become in the final printed
> version as the great Israeli conspiracy.
> 
> I trust that Congresswoman McKinney, and Professors McMurty and Peter Dale
> Scott, and Peter Spengler in Frankfurt share my apprehensions against the
> construction of such conspiracy theories.
> 
> Why should the Mossad have warned against the threat (pages 114 etc. of
> the printed book; and on 3 pages in the draft) when in the end they are
> described in the later 1/3 of the book as the real culprits? So they
> warned against a crime which they were about to perpetrate? This is
> absurd, really absurd! And what about the hundreds of Jewish victims of
> September 11?
> 
> I would be grateful if Security and Terrrorism Watch at Radio Liberty and
> Radio Free Europe could seriously review the book: THE WAR ON FREEDOM, by
> Nafeez Mossaddeq Ahmed, and that you sort of dwell on the strengths and
> weaknesses of this kind of analysis. I have decided to go public with that
> debate; and I have a good international academic and also diplomatic name
> to defend.
> 
> Having written only 60 % of his final text, colleague Nafeez Mosaddeq
> Ahmed would have prepared the groundwork for a good scholary book, that
> could have been used by a serious investigation at the US Congress and
> other bodies.
> 
> Now he has ruined the logic of his arguments completely, and has sided
> with conspiracy theories, anti-semites and other people, with whom I do
> not want to have anything to do, and I think, the other scholars and
> Congresswoman McKinney, all mentioned on the book cover as well.
> 
> I should also stress that this should not preclude a serious debate about
> human rights violations in the Occupied Territories etc.
> 
> 
> PS: I do not contact Mr. Barry Zwicker, who is also named on the back
> cover of the book and who is electronically listed in such publications as
> 'free mason watch'. I do not want to have anything to do with such
> publications, neither presently not in future.
> 
> Kind regards
> 
> Ministerialrat Dr. Arno TAUSCH
> Tel. (0043 - 1) 711 - 00 - 2272
> e-mail-address: Arno.Tausch@BMSG.gv.at
>